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iPhone 2.0 Already Unlocked?! Total iPwnage!

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 a 9:31 pm

JAR! Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware and prepare to be unlocked!

Didn't take long, did it? Well, actually it did -- the iPhoneDevTeam has been hax0ring away at it since the SDK went wide and Apple, in an attempt to woo legitimate developers, made the beta 2.0 firmware (all 8 versions of it), widely available.

Their latest, release version 2.0, Pwnage tool hasn't gone public yet, but will soon. Are you willing to unlock? 22 countries are getting the iPhone tomorrow, and 50 more are following, but with Apple's tight control of the SDK, my bet is there will still be a few folks out there who want to run anything they dang-well please on their iPhone.

What about you? Are you one of the crazy-ones, the pirates? Are you going to jailbreak/unlock?

iPhone 3G in Canada: It's What They Don't Say That Might Kill It

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jun 13, 2008 a 12:55 am

We mentioned yesterday that the Canadian Government was poised to bring down the DMCA hammer on us humble citizens, handing the reins of power more overtly than ever to Big Media and Big Telco.

Not so, says the Government, listing off ways in which their new bill is mildly less offensive than it's American progenitor, but I'm struck by what they don't mention. Will cell phone unlocking, including iPhone 3G unlocking, be made illegal? And what about DVD ripping? Can I not take a movie I pay money for and put it into iTunes so I can watch it on my new iPhone 3G? And why, to balance the rights you're stripping from Canadians, have you not long ago introduced a bill to prevent GSM monopolies in the telco industry from charging Canadians among the highest prices in the world for data?

How about that?

(Read on for the full text of the Canadian Government's preemptive email blast)

Apple's New iPhone Business Models

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 a 8:00 am

[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

"We're not married to any business model."

At the time -- and it's scary how long ago it seems already -- the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What's more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative -- and unprecedented -- revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren't married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was...

JAR! iPhone Pwnage Hits 1.1

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Apr 15, 2008 a 11:55 am

Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware -- prepare to be pwned! Erica Sadun of TUAW tells us the cartoon Jobs'ing, Russian slang'ing, custom firmware making, iTunes loading unlock solution has hit version 1.1:

The new tool allows you to add custom packages, logos and fixes EDGE settings under 1.1.4. Either pop over to iPhone-dev.org or choose PwnageTool > Check for Updates (Command-U) directly from the app.

But don't raise the Jolly Roger too soon, rumors are also circulating that Cap'n Jobs is coming about hard, cannon's loaded, and may just be upping the ante soon in the great unloack cat'n'mouse game.

Unlock the iPhone, Tie it to .Mac Revenue?

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Apr 6, 2008 a 7:42 am

Roughly Drafted recently proposed that neither impending 3G nor poor supply chain management were to blame for Apple Store's lack of iPhone stock, but rather the international gray market for unlocked handsets.

Now, based on a post from Infrageeks, they're back with a look at how Apple could replace some carrier kick-back revenue with .Mac subscription revenue, if El Jobso saw fit to beef up the service and better tie it into the iPhone.

JAR! Blogging 1.1.4 Jailbreak

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Apr 4, 2008 a 3:32 pm

Real nice, Bohn. Fine. Let's do this.

As most probably know, Canada doesn't have the iPhone. Well, we do, but it's a cr@ppy piece of VoIP. Nothing near as revolutionary or useful as Le Steve's little universe denter. We also have a GSM monopoly with data rates so high Warren Buffet wants no part of them. (A national newspaper once calculated that to even approach an AT&T type iPhone plan on Rogers would cost well over $1000 a month, and would still offer less service).

US iPhone Shortage... Due to INTL Pirates?

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Apr 4, 2008 a 11:35 am

As previously mentioned, US Apple Store's have been surprisingly (or suspiciously) out of iPhone stock lately.

Some have speculated that this is due to the immanent release of a 3G iPhone, others have cited atypical supply chain management issues, component shortages, or shipping problems.

In a long post based on info from an anonymous source nom-de-tip'd, Tantrum, Roughly Drafted brings a third option to the table: Pirates. (JAR!)

iPWND - 2.0 Firmware Beta 2 Hacked (With Video)

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Mar 30, 2008 a 11:55 am

JAR! The "Cat and Mouse Game" between the nasty pirates and the royal Cupertino navy seems to have shifted decidedly in the pirates favor, or so says Engadget:

Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they're getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want -- even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon.

Video after the break!

JAR! iJailBreak Hits v0.6

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008 a 8:55 am

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If you have an iPhone on firmware 1.1.4 you're just dying to jailbreak and/or unlock, or an iPod Touch you want to liberate (and add apps to before June!), and you trust software created by 13-year olds(!), then iJailBreak may just be what you're looking for.

If you've previously used iJailBreak, you can update automatically. If you're new to the pirate scene and don't mind violating the ULA and your warranty, then this implementation is about as simple as it can get. Ars Technica reports you just download, install, run, connect, and viola!

A pirate's life indeed...

UPDATED! iPhone 2.0 Firmware Pwned: Full Jailbreak and Unlock

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008 a 7:15 am

Gizmodo raises the Jolly Roger this morning with news that the scurvy Pwned Project DevTeam has forced the iPhone SDK beta firmware to walk the plank:

Jailbreak? Aye.
Unlock? Aye Aye.
Unsigned Apps? JAR!

Old Install.app applications will need to be updated to the new APIs, but by using a firmware patch rather than hack, DevTeam believes this Jailbreak will be hard for Apple to counter. Prepare to be boarded!

Has the DevTeam got Apple's treasure for good this time or is Cap'n Jobs already coming around, cannons primed? The cat and mouse game continues!

UPDATE: Ars Technica explains:

The new exploit works by taking advantage of the boot loading process on the iPhone, using the AppleImage2NorAccess extension to load a custom firmware to the device in the same way that the standard restore process works. After the patched firmware has been written to the device and restarted, any unsigned app can be loaded and run.

Catch the video after the break!